Submitted
Nelson author Ernest Hekkanen will read from and talk about his newest collection of short fiction on Thursday, Oct. 14, in a Zoom online presentation. The stories in his most recent book, I Seem to Recall This, are largely set in the B.C. Interior and offer their creator’s usual range of tone from humorously zany to poignant.
The Zoom launch of I Seem to Recall This begins at 7 p.m. Those interested in attending the event need to RSVP by emailing appledor@netidea.com to receive the Zoom link. Please put “Hekkanen reading Oct. 14” in the subject line. The event is free and all are welcome to attend.
An editor and artist as well as writer, Hekkanen has been nationally recognized for his skill at identifying excellence in short fiction; a story he selected for his magazine, New Orphic Review, won the 2014 national award for short stories, the $10,000 Journey Prize. Other short fiction in the magazine, which he and associate editor Margrith Schraner published from Nelson for two decades, was shortlisted for the Journey Prize over the years.
Hekkanen’s novel, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills, about the “Our Way Home” 1960s reunions in Castlegar, was a 2008 finalist for B.C.’s George Ryga Award for socially conscious literature. In 2016, the provincial book review tabloid, BC BookWorld, named him a Literary Landmark — the only Nelsonite to be so honoured. And in 2018 he received Nelson District Arts Council’s Richard Carver Award for lifetime achievement. To date he has published 48 books of poetry, fiction, memoir, essays and plays.
“What we seem to recall,” Hekkanen said of I Seem to Recall This, “will often put us in touch with something buried awfully deep in ourselves — there, but ready to erupt at some point in time.”